For those of you who like cute fuzzy things or have little ones who like cute fuzzy things, one of the sea otters at the Seattle Aquarium just gave birth to a pup. It was born early Saturday morning. There is some information and a picture of mom and pup below and more pictures and videos on the Seattle Aquarium's facebook page, if anyone is interested.

The pups grow pretty quickly, so if you are looking for something fun to do in the next few weeks, I would highly suggest visiting the little guy. I haven't seen the new pup myself yet, but plan on making a stop in this weekend.

For those of you who don't know much about sea otters, here are a few interesting facts:
Aniak, the mother, is the daughter of Lootas, who is also at the Seattle Aquarium. Lootas came to the aquarium as a young pup herself when her mom was accidentally killed by a boat.
Unlike river otters, sea otters can live their entire lives at sea. They are born, eat, and sleep in the water.
Although pups can float, they spend much of their puppyhood on mom's stomach, while moms grooms, feeds, and teaches them to hunt.
Once they are grown, sea otters are in nearly constant motion cleaning and grooming their fur. They keep warm by keeping air bubbles trapped in their fur. If the fur gets dirty, they will loose their protection against the cold sea water. This is why oil spills are so dangerous to sea otters - if oil gets in their fur and they can't clean it off, they quickly become hypothermic.
The AZA recently stopped all sea otter breeding programs in zoos and aquariums to leave the space open for injured or abandoned wild otters, so being able to see a brand new pup is pretty unusual (this one was a bit of accident).
I hope you get a chance to see the new pup!

__________________"If you love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." -- Samuel Adams 1776

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty."

Lots of amazingness in that video.
I was fascinated with the training aspect of course How do you get a wild animal to hand over their offspring without stressing either mom or baby? Neat, training techniques...

__________________

"We become better trainers by refusing to swallow uncritically what is tossed to us as truth,
by developing our powers of empathy and observation,
and by searching for better ways to teach and educate the dogs we love."

Lots of amazingness in that video.
I was fascinated with the training aspect of course How do you get a wild animal to hand over their offspring without stressing either mom or baby? Neat, training techniques...

Exactly!!! I love the part where they give the pup back to her mom and the mom promptly put her back on the ledge, like "Nope! You keep her, I get shrimp while you have her, so keep it coming!"

Exactly!!! I love the part where they give the pup back to her mom and the mom promptly put her back on the ledge, like "Nope! You keep her, I get shrimp while you have her, so keep it coming!"

Ha ha I loved that part too <3
And hafta say... as the mom of twins, I empathize greatly with the otter mom Here YOU take the baby, Iíll lay here and eat shrimp cocktail...

__________________

"We become better trainers by refusing to swallow uncritically what is tossed to us as truth,
by developing our powers of empathy and observation,
and by searching for better ways to teach and educate the dogs we love."

I laughed right out loud when that mama passed the baby back up on the deck....she totally trusts the people. Gee wiz...how could she not with all the free shrimp cocktail? LOL. Yes, it looks like it takes two people; one to examine and one to keep dishing out the goodies to make sure the Mom is all right with it. In fact, it looks like she's come to enjoy handing over her baby to the "baby-sitters." LOL.

__________________"If you love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." -- Samuel Adams 1776

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty."